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Yeltsin remains hospitalized

MOSCOW (CNN) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin will remain
hospitalized for two more days undergoing tests, his aides
said Monday.

Yeltsin, who checked into the Central Clinical Hospital
Friday, is to undergo heart surgery soon. He
was hospitalized twice in the last year, and apparently
suffered a relapse this summer in the final days of Russia's
presidential campaign.

Protests abound in dispute over islands

HONG KONG (CNN) -- Demonstrators in Hong Kong passed out
petitions over the weekend. In Taiwan, they clogged a
Japanese department store. Both groups were protesting
Japanese claims to a string of islands in the East China Sea.

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Violence marks start of Kashmiri voting

(CNN) -- Violence erupted in
Anantnag, a separatist stronghold in the Muslim-majority
Jammu and Kashmir state, as the second stage of elections
began Monday.

India's Hindu-majority government called for the elections --
the region's first assembly elections since 1987 -- hoping
to ease tensions. But separatists called for a strike against
the elections, and militants in Anantnag threw two
grenades at polling places.

At least 20 people have been killed during
campaigning. In addition to the separatists push for
independence, both India and Pakistan have claims on the
region.

Hong Kong begins Vietnamese repatriation program

HONG KONG (CNN) -- Hong Kong authorities began moving
thousands of illegal Vietnamese immigrants Monday,
transferring them from a remote island to a high security
camp before returning them to Vietnam.

The program is part of an accelerated push to remove all the
former Vietnamese boat people before China assumes control of
Hong Kong in mid-1997.

The boat people were transferred to the Whitehead detention
camp, where inmates rioted last May and attempted a mass
breakout. All the fugitives were recaptured.

Megawati barred from Indonesian elections

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The Indonesian government has
barred opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri and her
supporters from running for office in the 1997 parliamentary
elections.

Megawati, daughter of former President Sukarno, was ousted
from the leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
by a government-backed coup in July, leading to riots in her
support. A faction of the PDI still considers Megawati its
leader.

Megawati has sued to regain control of the party, and
promised to sue to gain access to the ballot as well.